How percentile approximation works and why it's more useful than averages

Re:How percentile approximation works and why it's more usef... by pdpi on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:29PM (#28527954)

While I have your attention...

> For the median and average to be equal, the points less than the median and greater than the median must have the same distribution (i.e., there must be the same number of points that are somewhat larger and somewhat smaller and much larger and much smaller).

[0, 2, 5, 9, 9] has both median and mean = 5, but the two sides don't really have the same distribution.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How percentile approximation works and why it's more usef... by djk447 on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:35PM (#28528045)

Totally true...thoughts on how I could rephrase? I guess it's more the "weight" of points greater than and less than the median should be the same, so symmetric distributions definitely have it, asymmetric may or may not. Definitely open to revising...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How percentile approximation works and why it's more usef... by pdpi on Tuesday September 14, 2021 @01:41PM (#28528116)

> symmetric distributions definitely have it, asymmetric may or may not

Doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. It's more a curio than an important point anyway :)

[ Parent | on HN ]